The Plotbunny Bin
by bldude
Summary: A gathering of assorted plot bunnies that won't stop bothering me. Includes both Naruto and Non-Naruto Stories. Some may be ascended to become independent stories.
1. Table of Contents

**Hey!**

Welcome to Bldude's Plotbunny Bin, a repository for all the storylines I can come up with.

To solve my problem of always having new plotbunnies crop up before I'm done with a current story, I've decided to stick them all in here! Perhaps the better received ones will get ascended to full storyhood.

A note, while this is in the Naruto category, not all of my plot ideas is Naruto Fanfiction, it's just easier to keep everything in one place.

**Blanket Disclaimer: I own nothing but my original characters and stories. But if you want to use any of them, go ahead, just credit me please!  
**

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Table of Contents

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Chapter 1: This page.

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**Elemental Nations Online: The MMORPG**: Jumping onto the bandwagon for Naruto's life as a video game is my own entry. But unlike all the others I have read, this one has…multiplayer! (Note: Multiplayer available only in Full Release of Elemental Nations Online. Our apologies.~Supercell Studios)

Chapter 2

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**Naruto: Kouken**: One night, people with certain powers, potentials, and virtues are taken into a nightmarish realm to defend their world from eldritch abominations. They return home to find that no time has passed. What will they do from here no? Obviously AU, from point of divergence.

Chapter 3

* * *

Most, if not all of the story ideas here are incomplete, and it's very likely that I'll make major refinements to them should I ever publish them standalone.

From the Computer of,

Bldude


	2. Elemental Nations Online Ch1

Naruto: Elemental Nations Online: The MMORPG

* * *

There was a bright flash- And then he was back in the familiar white space of the menu.

The place was an endless white plane as far as the eye could see. A series of near translucent gray colored words with names such as **"New Game"**, **"Load Game"**, **"Options"**, and **"Credits"** floated in mid-air in front of him. From experience, he knew that they would follow him wherever he went in this space, turning as he turned, never leaving his view.

"Whew, what a ride…" Naruto muttered. He examined himself, finding his body to be at the age he had died at in the first place, in his very first life- 13 years old. It was a jarring transition- He was young again. Even his clothes were the same, an outfit he otherwise hadn't worn for years. Naruto patted himself, examining every bit of himself, from the nostalgic bright orange and blue jumpsuit and his spikey blond hair. His hands looked surprisingly pale and free of calluses, a far cry from the tanned and hardy appearance of his later life. Feeling his face, he found the familiar "fox-whisker" cheek scars that he was born with, 3 stripes on each cheek- a physical effect of being a Jinchuuriki, that is, the human prison for having a demon sealed within his body. In his case, it was the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox, otherwise known as the Kyuubi no Yoko. The fox's real name was Kurama, and while they had hated each other for a very long time, that hatred had simmered down and became more of a partnership in his later life.

He looked around. It had been a while since he had been here. Back in the early days, so many years ago when this was all new to him, he had died so many times, especially in his childhood and had returned to this menu time and again to try and find some clue to solving his predicament. Those days were long past gone.

In fact, in the last few years, he hadn't died at all, to the point that he had almost forgotten that he had the strange "immortality" that this so called game had granted him, that he could return to a save point once he died or even restart his life all over again.

"What now, I wonder…" Naruto murmured to himself. According to the end game message, he could return to the "game" he had just completed and continue that life, living past the end of the "Main Storyline".

Naruto pondered on this. On one hand, it had been his life for the last twenty or so years. On the other hand…there was paper work to be done. Using clones helped, but ultimately, _he_ was doing the work anyways, and it seemed that his paper work grew in proportion to the number of clones he made anyway…

Naruto shuddered; going back to being the Hokage could wait, why did he ever want that job anyways? He wanted a break from that for now. Time supposedly had no meaning in this menu, so maybe could take a nap here?

_*Ka-Ping!*_

This sudden sound made Naruto jump in surprise. That was the first time he had ever heard anything else in this place. He turned to where the sound came from.

Floating in midair was a glowing exclamation mark.

Naruto tapped it with his finger. Though he felt no tactile feedback from his action, the exclamation mark dissolved anyways, and in its place, a message window appeared.

"**Thank you for participating in the beta version of Elemental Nations Online! In thanks, your complimentary copy of the full retail edition has already been registered to your account!**

**With it comes the long awaited Multiplayer Feature! **

**The menu background graphics is also finally done!**

…Oh, so the white background he had gotten used to was supposed to be a work in progress…

**Please see change log for the full contents of this update!**

**Once again, thank you from Supercell Studios**

A smaller set of words lay below that perplexing message.

"**Downloading patch now…"**

And below that was an empty bar with a **"0%"** sign.

Naruto stared at it for half a minute before it changed into a **"1%"** sign.

After another minute, there was no change, and Naruto groaned.

'I'm not waiting for that bar to fill.' He thought with annoyance.

He lay down on the ground and promptly went to sleep, setting his internal clock for five hours.

* * *

One moment Naruto was asleep, having a dreamless rest, and the next he was awake. Consciousness came immediately and he shook off any last bit of disorientation to take in his surroundings.

He was still in the menu.

Naruto turned back to the patch progress bar to see…

"**1%"**

'You're kidding me.' Naruto thought in disbelief, before shaking his head.

"I'm definitely not waiting around for that thing to finish." Naruto muttered to himself, and looked around, "What else is there to do…"

He trailed off as he spotted something he had somehow missed before-

The menu still had the same list familiar icons, but beside the "New Game" selection, there was now a small plus symbol, making it out to be **"New Game+"**.

Naruto stared, 'Huh, that's new.'

Taken by curiosity, Naruto went over and tapped the New Game+ icon.

Normally, at this point, he would be thrown into a rendition of his own life starting as a baby, except with some out of place elements like save points and numbered character statistics that measured how powerful he was.

This time however, he remained in the menu, and a whole bunch of additional icons and symbols coalesced into existence around him in bright light, momentarily blinding his senses.

Naruto blinked rapidly to get used to the change in light, and finally started reading what each new icon said. Using the hard earned intuition that he had painstakingly learned over his decades of harsh life, he rapidly absorbed the information and details around him, then deduced their content.

These were additional settings he could choose for his new game. Apparently, that was what a New Game+ entailed.

There were a multitude of settings he could customize. From changing the difficulty to setting up starting bonuses it seemed. The current difficulty was selected as "Regular", and there were additional difficulty settings, each turning a darker red in what looked like successive difficulty. "Hard" and "Very Hard" wasn't much of a surprise. "Insane" looked terrifying however, and simply looking at the word seemed to induce some primal fear in him, as the word morphed and grew thorns- wait.

Naruto blinked again, before sensing a mild genjutsu around it. It seemed harmless, it merely made the word look more intimidating. Naruto ignored it as the makers of this game having a laugh at his expense. Kami knows how many times they pulled stuff on him.

There was a grayed out difficulty option beyond "Insane" however, named "Lunatic". A small script below the word said, "Beat Insane Difficulty to unlock Lunatic Difficulty."

"Yeah, forget that, I'm sticking with regular." Naruto said out loud. With that, he moved on.

A small blinking icon caught his eye.

"**Iron Mode"**

He read the description:

"**Play just like when you were mortal! In Iron Mode, saves are disabled, you have one life and one life only- no redoes. Several unique achievements can only be unlocked in this mode. Beat your main storyline in Iron Mode to unlock Iron Mode+!"**

Naruto shrugged and on a whim ticked it on. He had gotten used to fighting smart and not abusing save points for a while now already anyways. It wasn't a problem for him anymore, what could possibly go wrong?

Next was a wide array of starting bonuses. Here, Naruto began to feel a bit of anticipation. There appeared to be a cost associated with each option, with the more expensive ones presumably better than the cheaper ones.

The cost was listed out under a currency called **"Premium Tokens"**.

There was a grayed out selection icon saying **"Buy More"**, and Naruto couldn't select it for some reason. He didn't even know what he could buy more of them _with_. But that was fine- it looked like he had plenty of premium tokens already.

In his previous game life, he had come across physical Premium Tokens occasionally that were special game items. At those times, he didn't know what to do with them, and they disappeared when he touched them, going to a meter in his inventory that didn't take up physical space. Not only that however, he got them from a large variety of sources, from "quests", to doing any random achievement it seemed. So he just went on with his life, grabbing them when he could and forgetting about them afterwards.

Naruto browsed the various starting bonuses with wonder at seeing options like **"Born with the Sharingan Bloodline limit"**, or **"Born with the Rinnegan Bloodline limit"**. His face fell when he saw that the price for the latter one was much higher than what he even had total. The former itself was barely within his budget, and with some regret, he decided to come back to it if he couldn't find anything better.

There was still a long list of other bonuses to choose, some as exotic as the bloodline limits he saw earlier, and some that were quite mundane, like "Start with X Ryo in a trust fund, (Increments of 100,000 Ryo)".

As he scrolled through the lists, he started coming across some grayed out icons. Instead of a bonus, they seemed to list a requirement needed to unlock the bonus.

Naruto's eyebrows shot way up as he read some of the requirements.

"Become Tsuchikage" was one, there was also "Become Kazekage", and even a "Reach Grand Master Rank in the Order of Jashin".

The novelty of reading some of the requirements eventually wore off though, and Naruto returned to browsing through the bonuses that _were_ available to him now.

After pushing past a few hundred options that he skimmed through and found wanting, Naruto came across some that looked interesting.

"Start with a random civilian born shinobi party member," It had a long list of variables behind it. It wasn't that expensive, in fact, he could afford three with tokens left over!

Scrolling down this branch list, he saw more.

"Start with a random Inuzuka Clan shinobi party member," and "Start with a random Aburame Clan shinobi party member,".

However, one option caught his eye.

"Start with a random Uchiha Clan shinobi party member." The list of variables included the option to select a specific gender at additional cost or leave it randomized, as well as granting additional stat bonuses at additional cost, user-generated backstory at additional cost, even customizable physical features and more. It was honestly bewildering so Naruto left it all blank. He could afford it, and just the thought of having an Uchiha Clan party member set off exciting ideas in his mind.

When he had played through his life, he had eventually gained what the game called party members after a long relationship with them, for instance, becoming friends and fighting side by side for years. It seemed to open up new options with the person in question, as well as increased interaction with him. Regardless of what being a party member meant, all party members Naruto had gained in his life had become trusted friends and comrades, their bonds built over many years.

If the starting bonus description was correct, he would apparently be starting with someone right off the bat. He didn't know how that would work out, but wanted to try anyways.

The party member bonus had eaten up a huge chunk of his premium tokens. There wasn't too much remaining, so he poured the rest in some more mundane and cheap selections, such as selecting "Increased potential" in a number of skills, which apparently let him gain points in those skills faster, from innate chakra control to base intelligence boosts.

A thrill of exhilaration ran through him. Oh, this was going to be fun! It did but something of a bitter taste in his mouth, as he had started with little and worked his way in his first few lives, but starting out as a child genius and having comprehensive knowledge of the future would most definitely be interesting.

Without further ado, Naruto "started" the game.

And his vision turned white.

* * *

_Author's Note:_ _I was inspired by Majin Hentai X's Naruto: Game of the Year Edition and Chibi-Reaper's Naruto the Videogame. I've seen a fair plethora of other fine VideoGame!Naruto Plots, but in writing this, to my knowledge, I am the first one incorporating multiplayer. And yes, multiplayer will come- as soon as Naruto's game is done patching itself. For now, he's stuck with the closed beta and its New Game+, which will serve as a way of familiarizing readers with the game mechanics I came up with as well as the history of this particular Naruto. This Naruto is quite different than the one in canon...  
_

_This is actually a cropped section of an incomplete first chapter that I wrote several months ago but never got around publishing. Maybe it'll gain new life in the future. For now, it'll be the first story idea in this Plotbunny Bin._


	3. Naruto Kouken Ch1

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything, blah, blah, blah, except for OCs and the story of course!**

_Author's Note: I was going for the trope of "Badass_ Army"_  
_

"Speaking out loud"

'Thinking words'

OOOOOO

It was a warm night; a sign that Summer was coming. The bright full moon and starry sky shone on a city surrounded by a vast forest. The architecture of the city blended in well with its surroundings with structures of mainly nature themed designs. This was Konohagakure no Sato, or, The Village Hidden in the Leaves, the Country of Fire's Premier Shinobi village.

It was a quiet night, aside from cricket chirps. Most of Konoha's residents were at home in their beds, sound asleep. Only a few shinobi stayed up, either on patrol, or guarding vital strategic locations.

The people dreamed in their slumber. Some had nightmares, tossing and turning in bed. Some had vague dreams that would be completely forgotten by the time they woke up. And some had more vivid, memorable dreams. One common dream among the sleeping citizens of Konohagakure was related to the upcoming Konoha Shinobi Academy Genin Exams, scheduled to begin in the morning. Parents dreamt of celebrating the graduation of their children. Those same children dreamt of becoming real ninja of their village, proof of their adulthood.

Some had even already dreamt ahead, their unconscious minds fantasizing rescuing princesses, saving towns from evil bandits, and endless ramen. That dream in particular belonged to a 12 year old boy named Uzumaki Naruto. The blond haired boy snored almost contentedly at his dreams.

Unnoticed by all but one creature in Konoha, reality shifted. It was a drastic shift. The Nine-tailed demon fox sealed inside the body of Naruto felt only a sense of sudden, inexplicable doom. Then it disappeared.

If there had been anyone present, Naruto's body would have seemed to flicker for the smallest moment. It was short, so short that a person might have missed it even if he had been staring intensely at the boy at the exact right moment.

Unknown to nearly all in the world, a calamity came. It came in an instant, and went by just as fast. And so, the world had changed.

OOOOOO

Naruto stirred…then instantly shot out of his bed with a gasp of panic. His feet were braced, his body low, practiced eyes scanning his surroundings for threats. His mind reeled with disorientation, pure confusion. Where was he?

A pair of kunai slipped into his hands via weapon seals inscribed on his arms, a pair of kage bunshin appeared, silent and smokeless, exact replicas of him, ready to protect him, either as a direct shield against a threat or as an anchor to use the kawarimi escape technique with, and he pulsed his chakra in a sensory sweep.

But there was nothing. He was alone.

Still shaking with adrenaline, the blond kept his weapons up. He had learned from experience that even if he appeared to be safe, he should keep his guard up anyways. It had saved his life too many times to count. Naruto looked around, confused, checking his surroundings. It was nighttime, he was in a messy bedroom, and there were scrolls scattered everywhere, dirty clothes, trash…To his left was a window, giving a spectacular view to a vaguely familiar city. Underneath was a healthy potted plant. Naruto blinked, feeling slightly unsettled. He felt like he should know this city and his location, but the names were maddeningly out of reach.

Turning his head, he saw, taped prominently next to the window, a faded poster promoting the unveiling of a new type of ramen at Ichiraku's…

'Ramen…Ichiraku?' Naruto thought, confused at the words. They sounded so familiar, as if he should know them from somewhere…

With a start, he finally remembered, and all the memories came back, mental images of a kindly old man, a pretty young girl, the warm aroma and the salty taste of noodles. How could he have forgotten? It was a common dream he had whenever he got some sleep during what passed for night in the Gateway, his ultimate desire, to eat a bowl of ramen once again…

He could do that now. It was a hard concept to grasp, that freedom, because it had been so long. It wasn't a wistful fantasy anymore however, he was free!

'Free…was it all a dream?'Naruto pondered. He looked at the kunai in his hands, and the kage bunshins still dutifully standing guard. 'Probably not…' He was sure he couldn't use the kage bunshin technique before being called up.

Naruto didn't need to ponder long; someone else had already taken the initiative. All of a sudden, a piece of paper not unlike those used for seals materialized out of thin air with a muted poof. With growing anticipation, Naruto grabbed it before it could drop to the floor and began to read its contents.

_General Message, Konoha Radius  
_

_To all those who remember, come to my house, I have plenty of room for us to talk. Refreshments provided. In case you don't know where my house is, think of my name and look at a map of the village. _

_Delta Platoon Leader, 2__nd__ Brigade, (Formerly of 1__st__ Division)_

_P.S. It was not a dream and you're an idiot for even thinking it was._

Naruto slapped himself in the face. Of course, why didn't he think of it first? With just a thought and a small application of chakra, he materialized the contact list.

The contact list was a miracle of the sealing arts, and had proved invaluable during the war. It listed everyone who had put their names on it, their group assignment, labeled whether they were still alive or not, and most important of all, it allowed everyone to send messages to anyone and everyone else on the list, regardless of distance, instantaneously.

Naruto scrolled down the list. There were hundreds of names, glowing white against the backdrop of yellowed scroll paper. He wasn't alone, others had made it home.

But Naruto's mood grew somber when he continued scrolling down and saw the darkened names. There were thousands of people whose lights had gone out forever, and the paper didn't have those that had passed before they even created the list. He dematerialized the scroll and sighed in sadness.

OOOOOO

Naruto leapt across a rooftop, then took a big jump over a wall and landed into what appeared to be a completely deserted section of Konohagakure. Faded red and white fan symbols were everywhere, on buildings, on banners, and on unused lanterns. Everything showed the kind of wear that came from years of disuse and negligible upkeep. A large manor house loomed in the distance, and as Naruto got closer, he noticed that the lights were on. That was Naruto's destination.

A dark, spikey, raven haired boy was standing in the entrance way, observing the surroundings. He started grinning when he saw Naruto.

"Took you long enough idiot, you're the last one here." The boy scoffed.

"Yeah, yeah bastard, so I got lost. Bite me." Naruto retorted. But as Naruto passed the other boy, he paused. "We did it Sasuke, the world's safe." He whispered softly.

Sasuke snorted, "No thanks to you, you were knocked out for the entire last day." But after a second, the boy cracked a smile. "It's good to see you here, I wasn't sure if you were going to pull through back there. Come on in, the others are waiting on you." He said, gesturing for Naruto to follow him.

OOOOOO

They had settled in Sasuke's spacious living room. Uchiha Sasuke was the last member of his family still living in Konohagakure, and his clan had possessed significant wealth. It showed in the large and well-furnished room, and there was plenty of space for the people sitting down on tatami mats, arrayed around in a circle. Some were nursing ceramic cups of tea, others sitting patiently. All looked up when Sasuke came in, Naruto in tow. The blond scratched the back of his head sheepishly before mumbling an apology for his lateness.

Then the silence was broken as people cracked grins, smirks, and smiles. The atmosphere immediately lightened up.

Naruto shared a look with each and every one of them, all of them brothers and sisters in arms.

For that was what they were, all of them closely bonded through Kami knew how long of a time that they had fought side by side. Naruto paused and considered that, trying, honestly trying to remember how long they had been together. Years certainly…but just how long?

If he wracked his brain for memories, he could distantly remember the day their early divisional units were reorganized into a large number of smaller brigades when the larger units had been shattered by sheer attrition. That was…ten years into the fight, a full decade after the Calling. But even that day was a very long time ago for him. So much more than a decade then.

Just looking at a few of the people in the room was enough to recall almost everything he knew about them. He had been even closer to some of the people in this room because they were his neighbors, classmates, or friends of the same age group when they were called up.

Nara Shikamaru was a genius planner, and easy to adapt to situations on the fly. He had saved them all more than once, and the things he could do with his clan shadow techniques were unreal, at least to Naruto. Shikamaru nodded to Naruto, a warm smile forming on his face.

The stoic Hyuuga Neji gave a small nod. It was known that he was the most withdrawn of all of them, having lost his first teammates and friends early on. Naruto had worked with him plenty of times and could trust in Neji to be deadly at close range or to act as a protective bulwark when by his comrades.

Sitting next to her cousin Neji, Hyuuga Hinata smiled when Naruto looked her way. They were good friends, and long ago, she had admitted to having a crush on him. She was his first, and they did it innumerable times afterwards when the going got tough. Due to the life or death situation of the war however, they never truly got together and instead became akin to siblings. Very intimate siblings. Indeed. Naruto grinned when he remembered something perverted.

There was a girl with bright, fluffy pink hair sitting next to Hinata, deep in conversation with the Hyuuga. Her name was Haruno Sakura, and Naruto distantly remembered having had a crush on her, so many years ago. After so long however, he, like most of the others began to see each other as family members. She was almost as smart as Shikamaru and was one of their tactical leaders. Her skill with weapon swarms and complex seals was almost second to none.

A boy, his features mostly hidden behind a high neck jacket and a pair of shades nodded at him as well. Aburame Shino was a highly competent leader, and while Naruto had heard good things about him, he didn't have much opportunity to fight alongside him and get to know his strengths since they were in different brigades. He knew enough about him to know that he had a fantastic array of bug familiars to fight alongside with.

Naruto stared at the circle for a moment longer. "This isn't everyone Sasuke."

"Aoba, Genma, and their crowd are in the backroom discussing logistics. They remember the most on Konoha and the world in general, and they're also getting into contact with the other teams outside of Konoha. We have a lot of people who were apparently in the middle of nowhere when they were called." Sasuke explained.

"Oh."

Naruto hadn't even thought of it, when they came back, they landed right where they were drawn from, of course not everyone would be in a spot like a hidden village or town.

"They're handling it. Don't worry about it, let's just get started." Sasuke said. He turned and clapped his hands together. Everyone dropped whatever they were doing and turned to listen.

"So!..." Sasuke began.

"We saved the world." Naruto said, grinning widely.

"A great achievement." Neji said, a great understatement, "But where do we go from here?"

"I don't know, we've been fighting for so long…I never thought we could actually do it you know? I mean, suddenly, we're free, we're done." Sasuke said.

"I'm not sure…Maybe we should just carry on with our daily lives? At least for now? I for one would like a break from the endless death and destruction." Sakura stated.

"Hmm…well, what were we doing before we got called?" A pleasantly plump (Read: Fat) boy named Akimichi Chouji asked.

Everyone went silent, each trying to draw upon the hazy, far off memories of their childhoods.

Naruto grimaced, racking his brain for answers, he remembered Ichiraku Ramen, he remembered the Third Hokage, and he remembered Iruka of course…but other than that, nothing. All he had ever known was being with these people, his…family, a band of brothers and sisters.

Shikamaru gave an aggravated sigh, "You guys all have lousy memories, troublesome. We're kids, and we were preparing for the genin graduation exam. It's tomorrow. Or rather, today, in a few hours."

Another boy asked, "Should we go then?" Inuzuka Kiba was of a shinobi clan that utilized canine partners in battle. His dog, known among them all as the "Eternal Puppy" Akamaru had its face dunked in a dog bowl next to him.

"What do you mean should we go? Of course we have to go! It's our rite of adulthood!" The blonde haired Yamanaka Ino protested.

"You didn't even remember about it a minute ago." Kiba pointed out.

"Yeah!" Naruto nodded, "Well…after all that happened, it just seems so…unimportant now."

"I get you. But still, if we all don't show up, that's going to be really suspicious." Ino replied, crossing her arms.

Shikamaru sighed and muttered "Troublesome," under his breath. "Okay, plan then. We'll take care of the genin exams first. We'll work from there on later."

They spent the rest of the time just pleasantly chatting up things and recounting what happened in the last day. After an hour though, someone noticed the time.

"I think we should try getting some sleep, it's in the middle of the night and school starts in a few hours." Neji pointed out.

"You guys can crash here then, the Uchiha district has plenty of room. I don't even remember what I do with all this space!" Sasuke announced.

OOOOOO

The next morning, they all got up and made breakfast together. Only a few of them had known how to cook before they were called up and those skills were obviously rusty after so long without use. Eating wasn't needed for survival in the Gateway, and it was a marvel to have to and be able to eat again.

After the meal, everyone got up to go to the academy together, save for Neji, who had already graduated last year, chronologically in this world. The rest of them wished him luck. They wished they could be with him when he met his team, but they couldn't. It would be extremely hard on him, to meet people whose deaths he had never really gotten over.

The remaining nine of them all came in together. It must have been a strange sight, because the rest of their classmates were all staring at the band, all of them sitting roughly together.

Sasuke had thrown up a silencing jutsu they usually used for aural stealth but one that doubled nicely as a way to talk in private, and were now discussing what the "adults" had uncovered so far.

"2nd Blondie…Ahem, I mean Beta Platoon leader is stuck in a place called Kumogakure." Shikamaru started before getting rapped in the noggin by Ino. 2nd Beta Platoon commonly got called Blondie Platoon for the coincidental fact that all of its members had blond hair.

Ignoring the glaring Nara, Ino proclaimed, "Oh yeah! She told me about it once. It's a nice place from what I heard. She lives there I think."

"A lot of 2nd Delta platoon's members are scattered all across the world, I don't think we'll be able to link up in any reasonable time frame." Sasuke said. He glanced at Naruto, "Same thing with Omega."

Naruto was the leader of 9th Omega. The "9th" came from the fact that he was in 9th Brigade. Each brigade had its own number of alphabet named platoons, and they were each distinguished only by the Brigade number. Sasuke didn't need to distinguish between 2nd and 9th Omega in this context. 2nd Omega had been totally wiped out years ago.

"With what way things are right now, then I guess we should form ad-hoc teams instead. We're all here together, so let's join up together." Shikamaru suggested.

After everyone nodded in agreement, Sasuke continued, "Good idea, I'll pass that on to Genma, he's coordinating our regroup in Fire Country. We've tallied everyone here in Konohagakure up too; we have 45 people in Konoha alone."

With plans done, Sasuke dropped the silencing jutsu. A few more minutes of small talk followed, before the Chuunin Academy Instructors Umino Iruka and Touji Mizuki came in and called everyone to attention.

Naruto had a pang of nostalgia at seeing Iruka again. It had been so long for him, and involuntarily, tears flowed down his face. Sasuke noticed and grabbed his hand, gripping it tightly, in an unspoken display of comfort.

Naruto acknowledged his friend and quickly wiped the tears away, thankfully before either the teachers or the other students noticed his emotional display.

In the front of the class, Iruka began the day's announcements.

"Today, you will all take your Academy Final Exam. Successfully passing it will mean graduation as a genin ranked shinobi of our village. This is the most important test you will ever take in the academy. A few of you may have already tried passing it early and already know how the exam will go, but for most of you, this will be your first attempt…"

Naruto let Iruka's speech slowly drift out of his focus, only paying attention to the man's features. The gleam of his leaf forehead protector, the dark brown hair held back in a spikey ponytail, his proud, sharp face, and the distinctive horizontal facial scar running across his cheeks and the bridge of his nose. Iruka was exactly how Naruto remembered him.

The chuunin would always hold a special place in his heart, as one of the very few people who ever interacted positively with him and showed him honest kindness before his Calling.

At some point, Iruka had finished talking and as he did, he caught Naruto's eye and smiled in an encouraging way.

"_Good luck"_, the chuunin seemed to say.

Naruto smiled back.

OOOOOO

The test was split into parts- first, a written section that consisted of a large number of multiple choice questions and a few fill-in ones.

There were a few history and political questions that Naruto honestly couldn't answer. It had been so long for him, and he probably hadn't studied the subject well even before being Called. The theory and actual shinobi knowledge questions he could answer perfectly however- not from hard studying, but from frequent use and mastery of the actual skills themselves.

Next was a set of two parts- first a practical of major shinobi skills ranging from demonstration of stealth, weapon throwing accuracy and a 3 minute hand to hand taijutsu battle with a chuunin instructor.

Naruto, on agreement with the rest of his friends, tried to tone down his actual skill level as to not arouse suspicion. But he suspected he didn't do so well in hiding his power, if the floored looks from everyone else was any indication. And he had purposely missed a few of his shuriken throws, as well as seriously held himself back in the taijutsu fight too!

If it was any consolation, Naruto was sure his friends didn't hold themselves back all that well either.

The final part was a test on the Academy's three main ninjutsu techniques- the kawarimi no jutsu, a ninja escape technique that involved replacing oneself with another object, the henge, which was an illusion technique that made your body take on the appearance of another, and the bunshin no jutsu, which made an intangible illusory copy of its creator.

"To graduate, you'll have to do the bunshin no jutsu." Iruka announced when calling Naruto's name.

They were going in alphabetical order, so Naruto was one of the last ones.

Iruka led Naruto into the testing room, and went to wait beside Mizuki behind a desk. Four ordered rows of konoha leaf forehead protectors laid waiting neatly on the desk for new graduates.

"Begin whenever you're ready Naruto." Iruka told him. Though he said those words, Naruto could clearly see that the man was nervous.

Naruto smiled wanly. Though he was sure he had been bad at the technique at some point, in the Gateway, you either learned fast or you died. With the proof of Naruto standing here back in the real world, Naruto hadn't had trouble with the bunshin no jutsu for a very long time. It was even easier considering that a full four-fifths of his chakra supply was permanently parceled out to fuel personal protective technique layers stretched across hundreds of people.

Naruto made the hand seals for the bunshin no jutsu clone technique and flawlessly formed a pair of the illusory doppelgangers.

There was a long, almost stunned silence as the pair of chuunin stared.

Finally, Iruka broke out of his stupor and grinned, smiling brightly. "Congratulations Naruto…On graduating!"

Naruto wasn't really interested in that at all, but Iruka's proud happiness gave him the proper elation he should've had at the accomplishment.

OOOOOO

When morning came the next day, after a return to his apartment to grab some belongings such as spare clothes and the entire supply of 257 cups of instant ramen in his closet, Naruto returned to Sasuke's home, and the "Gang", as Kiba called it had breakfast together again.

As they were eating, Sasuke asked, "Did you hear? The old folks caught Mizuki trying to steal something from the Hokage's Tower. Word is, the man actually somehow made off with the object and got all the way to the outskirts before he came across our people."

Naruto choked on his cup noodles, "He's a traitor!?" He blurted out after Kiba gave a precision slap to his back to help.

Sakura's eyebrows rose even as she helped herself to another slice of toast, "Wow, I didn't realize Konoha's security was that lax."

Sasuke shrugged, "Eh, it's not really our problem. So now that we've all graduated, what's going to happen next?"

"According to my research, we'll be separated into teams of three genin each under the command of a jounin instructor." Shikamaru explained.

"I could've told you that." Neji deadpanned.

"How are the teams chosen?" Naruto asked, ignoring Neji.

Shikamaru leaned back and sighed, "Mainly by class rank, barring any special arrangements. It seems that these teams were already pretty much pre-determined. The graduation exam doesn't have any points to factor into our class ranks, save for the fact that we need to graduate to be put on a team."

"And I'm guessing you've already uncovered whose going to be on what team, am I right?"

"Yeah, you'd be right. Me, Ino and Choji are going to be in a team together, that was actually predetermined even before class scores were in, it's a tradition since each of our fathers' were in one of Konoha's most successful team combinations together. Apparently, they think we'll be able to emulate that success."

Sasuke put his hands under his chin in a thinking pose and said, "The Ino-Shika-Cho Formation right? I think I've heard about that."

"That's exactly right." Shikamaru affirmed with a nod. "Next, Hinata, Kiba and Shino are going to be in a team together. That one is also based less on their class ranks and more on their skill sets. Well, I should say, their skill sets prior to being Called. Still, it's a very lucky set of circumstances for us."

Shikamaru eyed the three remaining people who didn't have a team yet, "You three, are in a team together. Your team is probably the only one out of the nine of us that was actually formed based on class rank. The genin of the year, which would be you, Sasuke-"

Sasuke gave a small smirk of proudness.

"The lowest scoring genin of the class…that'd be you Naruto."

Kiba guffawed and quickly tried to pass it off as a cough. He failed, as Naruto glared at him.

"…And finally, Sakura, the highest scoring kunoichi in the class."

Sakura simply nodded, "Alright, we could work with that. A little top heavy in firepower, but there's nothing wrong with that."

"Very well then. Team assignments will be handed out today, so let's not be late to class, alright?"

OOOOOO

Later, in class, Shikamaru's research was vindicated when Iruka was announcing each team exactly as Shikamaru had predicted.

Naruto observed the rest of the class besides the nine of them that had survived the Calling.

…He honestly did not remember any of them. He wasn't even sure if some of them had been called before, but died in the fight instead. That was disheartening, but inevitable. No one was sure on just how many people had been Called, but most of the reasonable estimates put the number at 10,000.

…That there were less than a thousand of them left spoke volumes on just how dire the fight was. In all, with collective memory and records that were devised late in the fight, they had the names of maybe 5000. That meant fully half of their number, people who the Gods found worthy of being Called to defend their world where gone and forgotten.

Naruto glanced at each of his classmates again, suddenly desperately trying to recall any possible memories he had of them. They could've all been called and he didn't even remember. That no one had even managed to remember the names of the other five thousand of them that had given their lives was truly a travesty.

He was broken out of his contemplation when Sasuke smacked him in the arm.

"What?"

"Teams are being called, we're up." Sasuke replied.

Indeed, Iruka had just gotten to their team. "Team 7, Haruno Sakura, Uzumaki Naruto, and Uchiha Sasuke." The chuunin instructor looked up at the aforementioned team 7. "Your jounin instructor will be Hatake Kakashi."

The name brought a flinch to Naruto and he quickly motioned for Sasuke and Sakura to huddle for privacy.

"Hatake Kakashi…we know him right?" Naruto asked, his voice a whisper.

Sasuke looked at Naruto in half incredibility and half annoyance, "I should hope so, he was the one with the transplanted Sharingan eye. Copy Ninja Kakashi of the Sharingan"

The Sharingan was the Uchiha Clan's bloodline limit, a doujutsu that manifested in the eyes and gave among many benefits, the ability to nearly instantly discern the basic workings of and copy most techniques. The eyes provided eidetic memory, enhanced perception and many more boons, and showed up as distinctive red irises in the eye with black marks called tomoe around them, up to three normally.

Sasuke shook his head in exasperation, "He taught us all the Chidori and Raikiri, his two original techniques. Hell, he taught a lot of us on ninjutsu, since he _is_, the man who is known for copying over a thousand jutsu with his Sharingan. Don't you remember?"

In such a dire situation as being Called, no one left out on their skills. Everyone, to his knowledge had pulled out all the stops in trying to keep everyone else alive. Sharing of techniques, their most personal skills, anything that could help was done. After all, the price of failure…it was too much to even think of doing any less.

Naruto now remembered Kakashi. The man unfortunately hadn't made it into the ten years point when the brigades were formed. He was probably like the many hundreds of others, people who were already strong when they were Called that had heroically sacrificed themselves in the Struggle, so that the younger Called could live. Back when they were _young_. Naruto distantly recalled a man with silver hair and a calming leadership. He took his failure to remember who Kakashi was as another sign of his failure to remember the many that had died with a little self-loathing.

Outwardly though, he showed calm, "It's going to be interesting being with him again. Do any of you know how he was before he was Called?" He asked.

Both of his assigned teammates shook their heads in the negative.

"Nope. He was really competent afterwards though, and he never left anyone behind, even when it was suicidal not to do so." Sasuke answered.

"Because those that abandon their teammates are worse than trash." Naruto said, the phrase suddenly appearing in his mind, "He said that, didn't he?"

Sakura paused, looking deep in thought before turning to reply, "Yeah, he did."

OOOOOO

After lunch, the entire class met their jounin sensei. Or rather, the entire class minus team 7. Two hours after everyone had already left; the three of them were still waiting.

"Okay, where the hell is he?" Naruto asked in annoyance, while just finishing his four hundredth pull up at the doorframe. He was barely sweating, the doorframe wasn't big enough for him to do the harder pull ups.

"Right here." Someone stated. Someone other than his two teammates.

Naruto looked down and saw Hatake Kakashi in front of the door to their room, staring cheerfully at him with one eye, the other covered by his slanted leaf forehead protector. The bottom half of his face was covered with a mask.

Naruto dropped down and stepped back quickly, before being flanked by his two teammates. He couldn't help but stare at Kakashi. The man looked exactly as he had in his memories. Those memories were becoming clearer by the moment. With a minor start, he remembered a particularly important bit of information. Hatake Kakashi had been a member of Namikaze Minato's genin team. The Fourth Hokage's genin team. His _Father's_ genin team.

Kakashi walked into the room, appearing oblivious to Naruto's wide eyed staring. "My first impression is…pleasantly surprised. Meet me on the roof." With that, he shunshin'ed away, presumably to the roof. The body flicker technique could do that- though moving through physical obstructions like walls required more chakra than otherwise and much more control than usual.

That said, Naruto shrugged and all three of them followed Kakashi with their own shunshin.

OOOOOO

Hatake Kakashi was deeply surprised when not one, but all three of his new genin followed him by use of the body flicker technique. He had already been surprised just a moment earlier when he saw Naruto exercising apparently to pass the time- Chuunin Umino Iruka's records of the boy's personality indicated that such an act was unlikely, and those records had been considered highly reliable.

Then, all three of these kids successfully used the shunshin to follow him up. Already nominally a high level genin technique at least, the body flicker was upped to be about chuunin level when going through serious obstructions like a few floors of the academy building. He had expected at most, _Sasuke_, to possibly know the technique since the Uchiha boy was the overall student of the year and reputed to be a quite the prodigy. But all three of them? Suspicious. Still, nowhere near enough to call them out.

Outwardly though, Kakashi looked calm, almost bored.

"Well, let's begin with introducing yourselves." He told them.

Tilting her head to one side, Sakura was the one to answer, "What do you want to know?"

"How about your likes, dislikes, you know, your dreams for the future and things like that." The jounin stated nonchalantly.

The three newly minted genin glanced each other before collectively shrugging.

"Alright." Naruto spoke for the team.

"Then you go first." Kakashi replied, without even looking at the blond.

* * *

Naruto thought about it. What should he say? Likes…dislikes…dreams?

"Well, my name is N- Uzumaki Naruto…" Inwardly, he winced, having almost started out with _Namikaze_, his father's surname. He had remembered just in the nick of time that the knowledge that he was the 4th Hokage's son was not common knowledge outside of those that had been Called. Thankfully, it seemed that Kakashi hadn't noticed the near slip.

"I like cup ramen." He did, he had gorged himself on his rather large supply of ramen these past few days after having missed it for so long.

"I like...no, _love_ my friends…" Naruto said, changing the word to a stronger one when he belatedly realized it probably wasn't a good thing that he had placed his love of ramen over those of his friends and surrogate family by saying it first.

"I dislike…well, I dislike getting knocked out at the most inopportune times, and I dislike waiting the three minutes it takes for cup ramen to cook." Naruto paused, thinking on how to finish it on.

"My dream…" Naruto glanced at each of them in turn, then slowly shifting to see the rest of Konoha. He seemed to have a faraway look, one of wistfulness. There was a noticeable few seconds of silence as Naruto took in the view.

Finally, he turned back, and suddenly, there was only seriousness in his face.

"My dream…is to protect everybody." His voice was solemn and had a weight to it that suddenly forced the Copy Ninja Kakashi to lose his casualness and stare at Naruto.

Naruto stared back, "You, my friends, everyone in this village," Naruto remembered all those that had sacrificed their lives. The purpose of their sacrifice, "I want to protect the world and humanity." He finished.

* * *

Kakashi stared at Naruto. 'Well, that was…different. That's not suspicious _at _all.' The Copy Ninja thought.

It was apparent that Kakashi wasn't the only one who thought so since Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura were both glaring daggers at the Uzumaki.

Uchiha Sasuke was even shaking his head lightly and muttering under his breath. Kakashi caught the word "Dumbass."

Naruto himself was now sweating in embarrassment in well.

"Ehehehe…and uh, I have a hobby of…training! Yeah." The blond then hung his head and waved at Sasuke to go next.

Kakashi raised his only visible eyebrow before motioning at Sasuke as well, "You next then."

The Last Uchiha sighed, "Where to start? Well, my name is Uchiha Sasuke. I have a many likes and dislikes, too many to list really. I like my friends, I like eating good food, and I like being a CERTIFIED HARDCORE BADASS™. I honestly dislike too many things to list though."

Sasuke paused for air, "My dream…well, I guess I can share it. My brother Uchiha Itachi killed his entire clan save for me. I intend to confront him…one last time. And I guess, like Naruto, I have a hobby of training, not much else to do really hah."

'Again, surprising.' Kakashi thought.

The first part was…strange, the part about being a badass was out of the blue and threw him for a loop, but perhaps the boy was being cocky? The part about Uchiha Itachi was also expected, though Sasuke had said the name with much less vitriol than he expected.

"My turn?" Sakura asked, interrupting Kakashi's thoughts.

Kakashi nodded absently, "Oh yes, go ahead."

The pink haired girl obliged, "My name is Haruno Sakura. I like my teammates here, even though they can be a bit goofy at times. I like constantly improving my skills. I dislike a lot of things…much of them are the same as Sasuke's dislikes."

Sasuke gave the pinkette a knowing grin, which she reciprocated.

"My dream…well, I can't say I myself have a dream." Sakura shook her head, "Rather, I'm borrowing the dream of another, to improve her art until it is the greatest in the world. I'll do it because she can't anymore."

"I guess my hobby would dovetail with that dream, that is, to improve her art whenever I can." Sakura finished.

* * *

Kakashi nodded, tense but not outwardly showing it. Curiouser and curiouser, he was very good at reading people, a skill that came with his profession, and the three genin in front of him did not match their records and history. While those records wouldn't provide a totally comprehensive view on their lives, the three people in front of them were nearly the direct opposite of those indicated in the records. Naruto, whom he expected to be a loud mouthed brat, to put it bluntly, and whose desire to become Hokage, leader of the village was well known since he always shouted it from the rooftops. It was conspicuously absent in his self-introduction.

Sasuke, whose antisocial personality was well documented by his instructors and the therapist he had seen until just a few years ago. This Sasuke neatly contradicted that assessment, willing to even share his deepest desire, and in an unusually vague way. Sasuke had shared that desire a grand total of four times to their knowledge, once to the Hokage, once to Morino Ibiki, the head of Konoha's T & I Department, once to his therapist, and the final time to Yamanaka Inoichi when the man had aided in the therapy sessions with the Yamanaka Clan Telepathy Jutsu. Sasuke here had said "_confront_". All four recorded times; he had said in no uncertain terms that his ambition was to kill Itachi.

And Sakura, whose record was much shorter than her two peers but still contained enough to demonstrate that the Sakura in front of him was significantly different from the academically successful but _naïve_ girl as her instructor Iruka had described her in his report.

Not to mention, all three of these genin had an air of certainty about them, something that was hard to describe but generally only appeared amongst seasoned veterans who were very sure of their skill. Simply put, they did not feel like newly minted genin to him.

Kakashi smiled, "Well now that you've all introduced yourselves…I guess I should follow suit."

He leaned back, as if relaxed, though in reality, he was ready to attack at a moment's notice, "My name is Hatake Kakashi, I don't really feel like telling you about my likes and dislikes. Dreams, hmmm…and, well I have lots of hobbies."

Kakashi put one hand to his masked chin, as if in thought, "Well, in the bingo books, I'm known as the Copy Ninja Kakashi. I've collected over a thousand techniques. It's all thanks to this eye."

And with that, he pulled up his forehead protector to reveal a crimson eye with three tomoe spinning around.

…No reaction from any of them.

Sasuke spoke up a second later, "We know who you are Kakashi sensei, you are pretty famous you know."

Kakashi gave a chuckle and a smile with his eyes before pulling his forehead protector back down, "Sorry, sorry, wanted to impress you guys with all your fantastic dreams."

Well, they weren't imposters, the Sharingan would've caught that. The eye was invaluable against genjutsu, arts of deception that used chakra.

Kakashi stood up, "Well, now that we've all introduced ourselves, I'll go straight ahead and explain your duties."

Though they probably couldn't see it, he was smiling underneath his mask, "First, tomorrow, the four of us are going to do some survival training together."

…Still no reaction, no reaction besides some nods of acknowledgement. These three were astoundingly calm and subdued; totally unlike any genin team he had ever had the privilege of "teaching". That was to say, he had failed every single genin team he had been assigned thus far, all within a day. These three though, were different from all the others.

…He supposed they probably wouldn't respond as he wanted them to if he tried to intimidate them, "Don't eat breakfast tomorrow or you might throw up."

They just stared at him. Nope, not like the protests that all of his prior genin teams had assailed him with by this point.

Kakashi sighed, "The details are on these papers" while handing out a sheet of paper to each of the genin. "See you tomorrow." And he was gone.

OOOOOO

Morito Yoshihiro normally wouldn't even let Uzumaki Naruto into his establishment. Never mind the pranks the Demon Brat played against all the stores and restaurants in Konoha's entertainment district, that only made it worse. The brat's prior incarnation, the damned Nine Tailed Demon Fox had totally wrecked his old restaurant, not to mention everything around it. It was only his faith in the competency of Konoha's Hokages that he tolerated the boy's existence.

That said, he was unable to put up a complaint when the boy had strode in with nine other genin, and a dozen more senior ranking shinobi, some of them regulars of his establishment. So he allowed it, this time. He also hid his disapproval on the obviously newly graduated genin knocking back mugs of beer. Though underage by civilian standards, being commissioned as a shinobi of the village, even as a genin meant legal emancipation regardless of age. They were adults in the eyes of the law, and therefore, could legally drink all they wanted.

So Yoshihiro only snorted and went back to cleaning empty mugs behind his counter, watching the two dozen or so shinobi be merry. They had booked four tables, but were only sitting at three. The fourth still had full table settings and full glasses of alcohol as well, despite being empty. He could only wonder what they were playing at, though it wasn't much of a concern since they paid for it.

* * *

"And then he said, I want to protect the world and humanity!"

"Hahahaha!"

Naruto could only sit back and glare at his companions.

A purple haired woman looking to be in her early twenties shook her head in exasperation, "That wasn't a good idea Naruto, way to be discreet."

"I know that Yugao, it was just a spur of the moment thing!" Naruto protested.

Uzuki Yugao continued to shake her head, though this time, she turned to Sasuke, "And you. Mr. Certified Badass? Way to go out of character. I'm not surprised Kakashi pulled out his Sharingan, he probably thought you three were imposters."

Sasuke simply shrugged in response.

Yugao sighed, "So he has you doing survival training tomorrow huh? He's probably going to give you the Bell Test- he always does it to new genin teams."

"The Bell Test?" Sakura asked.

Yugao nodded, "Yup, the Bell Test. It's-"

Someone put his hand on Yugao's shoulder, drawing her attention, "I think we should let the three of them experience the Bell Test first hand."

The purple haired woman shrugged, "Alright Hayate."

Gekkou Hayate, another shinobi in his twenties had dark bags under his eyes, something that had distinguished him since he was a child. They were a physical result of his constant illness, one that he had for his entire life, but wasn't debilitating enough to warrant pulling him from the force.

"You three, go easy on Kakashi. He doesn't know what you're all truly capable of."

"Hey, hey!" Someone called.

The five of them, along with everyone else with them at their tables turned to the man who had called for their attention.

Shiranui Genma had raised a glass.

"A toast, to absent friends." Genma announced.

Everyone raised their own mugs, "To absent friends." And they all drank.

Naruto nearly choked on his first taste of beer, but managed to keep it down and successfully swallow. He looked around to see that no one hadn't managed it, and was thankful that he managed it as well. It would've royally sucked if he was the only guy who couldn't properly drink to departed friends.

Then, each of them grabbed a mug from the fourth table and they all stepped outside.

As one, they poured the drinks down on the dirt road outside the restaurant.

Naruto watched the amber liquid soak into the ground and thought of absent friends. The ones that hadn't made it. It was a depressingly large number of people.

He looked around at the ones with him now. They weren't everybody in Konoha, not all of them had the space in their schedules to make it to this wake.

He looked at them and vowed, right there, to never let another member of his family die again, not on his watch.

OOOOOO

_Authors Note: I will be totally honest, this is a completely bland, uber-wank!Naruto story. _

_I wanted to write this one to try my hand at writing over the top wankage. Naruto will be very positively powerful. Not just him, he has many, many allies, and they aren't pushovers either. Stay tuned if you want to see how creatively powerful I can make each person! Needless to say, there aren't going to be a whole lot in the human world that can pose a threat. Of course, they will have their own level of threats, and a goal proportional to their level of power._

_The basic premise of this plotbunny is that Naruto, and many others, from multiple nationalities and walks of life are "summoned" to fight an enemy that's threatening the existence of the world. Though they've fought for subjective decades, when they return, not a moment has passed since their "Calling". As a result though, there are hundreds of people now very closely allied that are injected into the plot. Some of them have become very, very powerful, and even those that haven't, aren't small threats either. Let's just call it, hundreds of S-Classes._

_The original document was only half as long before I shelved it. I wrote it sometime over the summer of 2012. It's become twice as long though, now that I'm sticking it in my plotbunny bin._


End file.
